Nichelle Nichols complained that with the Klingons as the Federation's primary enemy, a good communications officer would be able to speak at least basic Klingon. Director Nicholas Meyer preferred to keep the scene as it was, for "the laugh."

The Klingon language contained eighty poly-guttural dialects constructed on an adaptive syntax. The first Human to become fluent in it was Hoshi Sato, who learned from a linguistic database provided by the Vulcans. (ENT: "Broken Bow") Sato once remarked that a book given to her by Tarquin, written by a civilization over a thousand years dead, was in a language very similar to medieval Klingon. (ENT: "Exile")

The Klingon language was not an immutable language. It was constantly changing to meet the needs and aspirations of the people. In the mid-24th century, the word peacemaker appeared for the first time in Klingonese after the negotiations mediated by Riva between the Klingon Empire and the United Federation of Planets took place. (TNG: "Loud As A Whisper") However, as of the late 24th century, there still did not seem to be a Klingon word for jolly. (TNG: "Parallels")

petaQ

One Klingon term used as an insult on numerous occasions was petaQ (also spelled "Pahtak", "Pathak", "p'tahk", "p'takh", "patahk", "pahtk", or "p'tak"). It was also used by the Klingons of the mirror universe.

A Klingon stationed on Deep Space 9 called Laas a p'tak after the Changeling told him his hands would have a stench on them if they were "stained with the blood of Klingon warriors", as the Klingon had told him. (DS9: "Chimera")

After The Doctor added a "daydream" subroutine to his program, and started malfunctioning, B'Elanna Torres reminded him of an old Klingon saying while she was trying to fix it: "A Doctor that operates on himself has a pa'taQ for a patient." (VOY: "Tinker Tenor Doctor Spy")

Michael Okuda, who led the TNG-era art departments in creating Klingon language graphics, has admitted they are randomly arranged symbols, which he based on the small number of Klingon writings visible in TOS and the Star Trek films. These graphics and writings do not reflect any possible spellings or translations in what Okrand's non-canon works call pIqaD, the native Klingon writing system. (NOTE: An unofficial guide to pIqaD is included on the box insert of the Star Trek Klingon Edition Monopoly game.)

Sounds

The sounds of the Klingon language as developed by Marc Okrand are harsh and guttural. This transliteration system was used in preparing scripts and phrases when Okrand supplied dialog and coached pronunciation.

Below is a table providing a rough guide on how to pronounce Klingon and the standard transliteration of the sounds of Klingon. Please note that this table corresponds to the sounds of the standard dialect used when Okrand created the language; other writers have introduced other sounds and concepts into the language.

Letter

Sound

Letter

Sound

a

as in father or balm

o

as in go or close

b

as in ball; in some dialects it is pronounced mb as in amber or m as in mess

p

as in pass

ch

as in chess

q

similar to "k" but pronounced further back in the throat

D

as in dead but with the tongue rolled further back; also like "nd" or "n" in some dialects

Q

pronounced like q but choked, a very raspy sound, very forceful,very similar to the initial "cr" phoneme in croissant.

e

as in bed

r

as in rotary, but trilled

gh

similar to "g" but softly gargled, sounds a bit like the French "r"

S

half-way between "s" and "sh", like "s" but with the tongue rolled back

Basic phrases

Below is a short list of some useful basic phrases in the tlhIngan Hol dialect, the most commonly-heard dialect used in the Empire.

English (Human Hol, DIvI' Hol)

Klingonese (tlhIngan Hol)

Do you speak Klingon?

tlhIngan Hol Dajatlh'a'

I don't speak Klingon.

tlhIngan Hol vIjatlhbe'

Do you speak English?

DIvI' Hol Dajatlh'a'

I understand.

jIyaj

Beam me aboard!

HIjol

Fire thrusters!

chuyDaH

Buy or die!

bIje'be'chugh vaj bIHegh!

Pay now!

DaH yIDIl

I am a ...

... jIH

Klingon, Romulan, Human

tlhIngan, romuluSngan, tera'ngan

Vulcan, Ferengi, Cardassian

vulqangan, verengan, qarDaSngan

Visual!

HaSta

Ready torpedoes!

cha yIghuS

Ready...

'eHHH...

Evasive!

juntaH!

Surrender or die!

bIjeghbe'chugh vaj bIHegh!

It is a good day to die!

Heghlu'meH QaQ jajvam

Inconsistencies

The tlhIngan Hol dialect is featured most prominently in the Star Trek movies and intermittently in the series. Some writers on the television series followed The Klingon Dictionary fairly closely, while others did not. [1]Ronald D. Moore, noted for his major contributions to developing the Klingon culture, commented "Whether or not we use the language as spelled out in Marc's dictionary is up to the individual writer. I personally find the dictionary cumbersome and usually find it easier to make it up phonetically." (AOL chat,1997) Marc Okrand noted that despite these departures, "[A]ny Klingon spoken during TNG counts as legitimate Klingon, whether I made it up or not, and I've incorporated all of it into the language." [2]

Such departures from Okrand's version included the following:

The writers made up their own Klingon words: e.g kuva'magh or pfiots, against Okrand's pronunciation rules of standard tlhIngan Hol

They used established Klingon words but in such a way that they were strung together without following Okrand's grammar rules, for example SoH batlh jI' for "you honor me", even though this sentence means something like "I am a honor you are". The correct translation of "you honor me" would be choquvmoH or tuquvmoH, depending on whether you referred to one person or multiple people.

They gave new or extended meaning based on the English translation of a word, for example pu'DaH (pronounced poo-dakh) - phasers and cha (pronounced chah) - torpedoes, becomes pu'Dah dak cha (pronounced puh-dar dack chah) meaning photon torpedoes, when Okrand had already devised ' otlh cha.

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